Blooming Psycho’s New Strange World Today

This morning I was reading an article about a man who is accused of killing his 80 year old father, who had Alzheimer’s disease. The relationship had evidently been strained from the caregiver’s childhood and apparently the father had been abusive at times. These are my thoughts.

I work in a retirement community that also has an on-site assisted living and long term care facility. Individuals with Alzheimer’s can become very combative and difficult. They may not even recognize their family members any more. However, the decision to put someone into a nursing home is also a difficult one, and not only due to the guilt. At the place where I work, a room in the long term care area is $9000 a month. A person would likely end up having to sell everything.

Until one has faced this sort of crisis, it is easy to say that putting a loved one who needs 24-7 care into a nursing home is cruel. But it is not cruel if one cannot care for the person as they need to be cared for. I could not care for someone with Alzheimer’s 24-7 by myself.
It is evident that this man snapped. It is easy to say that his was a selfish act, but I don’t believe that it was. I believe that after years of living in a strained, and sometimes abusive relationship with his father, he acted on momentary rage. It is tragic, but such things can happen.

The son apparently has psychological issues himself. I would like to hope that he will finally get the help that he so desperately needs, but sadly, I have my doubts.

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